April 3, 2014—Linda Edwards of Las Vegas, Nevada is full of happiness because her long lost cat Spaz has been returned to her—12 years after he first went missing！ Spaz first went missing in 2002 and Edwards looked for him every day for three months. She searched all around her town and even wrote letters to some newspapers for help and was never able to find him. At the end of the three months, on New Year's Eve of 2002 her searching stopped. But someone recently discovered a dirty, thin stray cat (流浪猫)and took him into a West Flamingo Animal Hospital. The people working in the hospital checked the cat and were sure enough that his name was Spaz and he belonged to Edwards! “An old lady found a kitty on Sunday and brought him here. We scanned (扫描)him for a microchip (微芯片)and we were able to find out his owner. The kitty, whose name is Spaz, has been missing for 12 years!” the animal hospital wrote on their Facebook page early last week. Microchipping pets is a way to recognize if a stray animal belongs to anyone who could be missing them. Microchipping pets allows animal services to learn if they have a family waiting for them. Microchips are only about the size of a grain of rice and can only be removed by operation. Edwards is very thankful she had Spaz microchipped and was so excited to get him back ！ “I feel like I have a second chance,” she said. "This would have never happened if it weren't for microchips.